Device for protecting the banks of rivers



1). T. HEDGES & G. M. NEEDHAM; Device for Protecting the Banks of Rivers.

Patented Mar. 16 1880.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL T. HEDGES AND GEORGE M. NEEDHAM, OF SIOUX CITY, I'OWA.

DEVICE FOR PROTECTING THE BANKS'OF RIVERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 225,522 dated March 16, 1880.

Application filed September 30, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, DANIEL T. HEDGES and GEORGE M. NEEDHAM, of Sioux City, in the State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Improvement or Process for Protecting the Banks and Beds of Rivers or other Bodies of Water, and dams and bridges, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to protect the banks of all streams from the action of watercurrents and all surfaces exposed to the action of moving water, such as dams, dikes, docks, levees, canals, ponds, harbors, wharves, and for deepening the channels of streams by confining the water within their banks.

The improvement or'invention consists of a mattress made of cane, willows, trees, brush, or metal, and constructed into and over the bank or surface to be protected, as represented in the accompanying drawing, in which A represents the bank or surface into and over which the mattress is constructed, and into which one end of each strand of the material used is embedded and fastened. B represents the mattress, constructed upon the surface A, the different strands of the material used crossing each other obliquely, and are fastened. into and platted and interwoven upon the surfaceA into a firm, immovable, and compact mass or mattress.

As shown by the drawing, the mattress is commenced by placing one end of the material used (the butts in the case of cane, willows, trees, or brush) at the top of the bank in the case of bank-protection, and at the top of the dam in the case of dam-construction, and then forcing it into the earth until made sufficiently firm, afterwhich it is bent down and made to rest upon the bank. Additional material is fastened into and pressed down upon the earth or bank in the same way, and so that the different strands of the material may cross each other in oblique lines. The material used, being thus fastened and placed, is platted and interwoven into an immovable mattress of any desired thickness, length, or breadth. The construction of the mattress is carried on progressively from the top of the bank to the bed of the stream, and into and overthe latter when desired, piece after piece of thejnaterial used being embedded and fastened into the earth and interwoven or platted into the enlargin g and continuous mass or mattress. This mass or mattress, when completed, is an entirety, whatever may be its length or Width,

and every part of the improvement serves to support and keep in place every other part.

As every strand of the material used is fastened into the earth, the improvement cannot be washed away; and when the small openings or interstices in the mattress become filled with sand and sediment deposited by the water passing over the same the mattress becomes impervious to water, and thus forms a complete protection to the surface beneath. The greater 6 i the sedimentary deposit the heavier and more immovable and more impervious to the action of the Water the mattress becomes.

This mattress can be repaired or enlarged at any time. Its construction may be commenced beyond the waters reach in the highest floods, and, if necessary, it may be held in place temporarily by heavy weights placed upon it until the accumulating sediment deposited by the water has rendered such precaution unnecessary. 7 5

Sandy banks subject to constant change from the action of the water may be protected and held in place by means of this mattress.

Where very valuable interests depend upon the protection of a surface of moderate extent a mattress made of metal will frequently meet the requirement most effectually, care being taken to make it of such thickness and bulk as to furnish a lodgment for sufficient sediment to hold the mattress in place-a result which strands or pieces 5 but it is not believed that the device of firmly fastening into and platting and interweaving over and upon the sur face to be protected the material used into a continuous mattress, operating throughout its whole extent as an entirety, and constructed with the view of securing and holding in place the sander sediment deposited by the water,

to the end that the mattress may become Weighted down and held in place by the accumulation and rendered impervious to the action of the water, and in that way form a complete protection to the surface beneath, has ever heretofore been invented or used.

What we claim, therefore, as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

As a means of protecting the bank of a water-course or other surface exposed to the disintegrating effects of water in motion, a facing of cane, willow, trees, brush, or metal rods or bars, fastened into and platted or interwoven upon and over the bank or surface to be protected into the form of a continuous mass or mattress, the strands or pieces of the material in succession, as they are used being first embedded by one end in the bank or soil to be DANIEL TITUS HEDGES. GEORGE MERRIGK NEEDHAM.

Witnesses:

CRAIG L. WRIGHT, J. E. DWIGHT. 

